Grand Mosque of Algiers

Grand Mosque of Algiers Algiers – Hussein Bou Salah Religious Affairs Minister Bouabdallah Ghlamallah declared on Thursday the start of works on the Grand Mosque of Algiers, he said that the land devoted to the construction of this project is valid and meets all technical standards.The minister insisted on respecting the duration of the construction which is supposed to be delivered in September 2015, with a total cost of one billion Euros. This construction will create 17,000 jobs of which 10,000 are for the benefit of thew nation\'s workers.Ghlamallah supervised the works done to lay the foundation to the construction of the Mosque, which should be completed in 42 months in the Mohammadia area of the capital by the Chinese company “China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC)” which won the international bidding for selection.The project includes 12 separate buildings on  20 hectares with a total area of 400 thousand square meters. Built according to anti earthquake technology, the building will include a praying area of 2 hectares and with the capacity to hold 120,000 people with designs derived from the Moroccan halls of prayer filed on columns with the use of the latest technologies which were presented last October to the President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The prayer hall will be decorated with marble, natural stone and a great cupola with two walls containing openings which allow natural light into the hall.In addition to the praying hall, the Mosque will also contain a Koran hall dedicated to the benefit of post-graduate students and an Islamic cultural centre. While the library which contains about 2000 seats was designed to hold one million books, the open reading room over three floors is the heart of this library whose wall coverings will be ornamented and the office equipment are specially made for the book display and audio visual means.The minaret of the mosque is 300 meters high and is the product of the balance of dimensions and respect of traditional Maghreb minarets. It was designed to meet the symbolic use of number five in reference to the five pillars of Islam.The minaret of the mosque, which includes a history museum and a research centre in history and science has two elevators which allow the visitors to enjoy the views of Algiers and its suburbs 360 degrees, as well as the availability of a garage that can accommodate 6000 places across two floors placed under the back yard and the western part of the mosque.This grand mosque is the third largest mosque in the world after the Two Holy Mosques of Saudi Arabia, which comes in a time where the Maghreb countries witness a quantum leap in the construction of mosques after the increase of financial allocations to worship edifices to 72 percent due to the increase in the countries’ budgets assigned to such huge achievements as well as the increase in charity contributors.